THE working class is being left with no alternative by the government than to take general strike action to prevent all of its gains being wiped out.
The King’s Fund stated yesterday that it had marked down years 2015-16 as the ‘period of the cliff edge’, when the deadly situation of 40 bankrupt NHS trusts would be worsened by a further £1.8bn of NHS funding being diverted away from NHS hospitals.
The Fund stated that the NHS management and government had ‘risen to the challenge with pay restraint, cuts in central budgets, and the abolition of some tiers of management producing significant savings.
‘But the strongest pressure has been applied and felt at the front line, by hospitals and other local service providers, faced with squeezing more and more value from every health care pound.’
It predicted that NHS spending as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) ‘will fall from its peak of eight per cent in 2009 to just over six per cent in 2021 – equivalent to 2003 spending levels.’
It adds that ‘The NHS and social care face enormous challenges over the next 18 months. To avoid a major crisis – in terms of widespread overspends, decreasing quality of care, or both – the NHS needs more time, more money for transformational change and short-term support and measures to support change and value for money.’
The Fund finally warns that ‘With more than a quarter of trusts already in deficit a financial crisis is now inevitable in 2015-16’, and concludes that the NHS going bust ‘is only a matter of time.’
No wonder that Health Secretary Hunt has brought in clause 118-119 of the Health Care Bill to allow him to close down hospitals with the minimum of resistance once they have become the victims of state imposed bankruptcy.
The King’s Fund was not alone in bringing forward startling news. At the High Court yesterday, a judge halted a serious fraud trial because the defendants had been unable to get proper representation, because of the coalition’s savaging of legal aid.
Alex Cameron QC, working free of charge on the bid to halt the case, said the defendants would not get a fair trial. Judge Anthony Leonard told Southwark Crown Court that the defence had made ‘very substantial . . . but unsuccessful’ efforts to find barristers to fight the defendants’ case.
Cameron said: ‘It’s not the fault of the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) but we do blame the state more widely.’
In fact, barristers have been taking strike action against the way that the government has slashed legal aid meaning that more and more people cannot get a fair trial!
Yesterday, thousands of RMT members were out on the May Day march. Many of them were tube workers where the London Mayor is proposing to slash 1,000 jobs, abandon adequate staffing on platforms and stations and close all of the system’s ticket offices.
The Mayor will be putting the lives of Londoners at risk with these measures, but profit is the name of the game!
Today, firefighters will be taking a series of strike actions caused by attempts to smash their pensions and close scores of fire stations up and down the UK, placing the lives of millions at risk, but saving money for the bankers to enjoy, of course.
At the same time as these attacks are taking place, 1.4 million people have been put on zero hours contracts, where they are completely at the disposal of the bosses, without contracts, all for a pittance. The bosses want to see zero hours contracts everywhere and trade unions smashed.
It is in this situation that the TUC leaders have been studying the practicalities of calling a general strike for two years. They are terrified of the prospect. Workers must give the TUC an ultimatum. Call a general strike or we will make you resign, and replace you with leaders prepared to fight, bring down the coalition and bring in a workers government.
